Pa. rejects TVA coal ash as too contaminated

May 13, 2009

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Coal ash recovered from a major spill last December at a Tennessee power plant is too contaminated for use in Pennsylvania’s reclaimed coal mines, officials from that state said Wednesday.

Pennsylvania has 180,000 acres of old mine land needing recovery. But authorities there issued a statement saying that state has strict standards for the kind of material that can be buried there.

The 5 million cubic yards of spilled coal ash that flooded the Emory River near TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant doesn’t meet Pennsylvania’s requirements for “beneficial use,” said Pennsylvania’s Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger in the statement.

Whether this means TVA will have trouble finding a destination for the ash isn’t clear. TVA was interested in the Pennsylvania mines, at least initially.

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“I don’t know what Tennessee law is, but under Pennsylvania law it would probably have to go to a residual waste landfill,” said Tom Rathbun, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The coal ash Pennsylvania allows in abandoned mine recovery is a byproduct of burning coal waste.

TVA spokesman Gil Francis said separately that TVA has already decided against disposal in Pennsylvania because the mine sites weren’t lined to prevent leaching. Instead, he said the agency has selected two Class 1 landfills in Mauk, Ga., and Uniontown, Ala., to test ash loading and offsite disposal using railroad cars.

The rail tests began May 4 and will run for about two weeks. Two vendors are involved. Each will load and ship 15 rail cars filled with ash.

TVA hasn’t decided where it will send the rest of the ash. Limited dredging of some 3 million cubic yards in the river has just begun. The ash is 30 feet deep in some places.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which this week assumed oversight of the cleanup, said it hopes to expedite a cleanup schedule currently projected to take two to three years.

Final site decisions will have to be approved by EPA and state regulators.

To date, TVA has only sought permission for the rail-testing sites in Georgia and Alabama, said Tisha Calabrese-Benton, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.